Econet Media chooses Mediaproxy solution for Kwesé TV

Mediaproxy, a provider of software-based IP broadcast solutions, has announced that Econet Media has chosen its unified broadcast compliance, monitoring and analysis solution for Kwesé TV. As the world’s largest scale HEVC via satellite deployment to date, Mediaproxy software is enabling Kwesé TV to ensure delivery of its premium pay-TV service to consumers in Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, and Kenya.

Econet Media, a subsidiary of the Econet Group developed Kwesé as a new satellite television brand and service catering to the African market. Kwesé TV offers viewers access to premium sports and entertainment programming including exclusive and first-to-market third party channels such as Revolt and Viceland, as well as leading sports content including NBA and ESPN, only available on Kwesé TV. Viewers can purchase 3, 7 or 30 day subscriptions to unlock Kwesé TV’s premium content through an HEVC compliant satellite set-top box. The Kwesé portfolio of services also includes a free-to-air channel – Kwesé Free Sports – which sits under Kwesé’s Free Bouquet that has at least five channels available free of charge. On Kwesé’s product offering, people can also purchase the recently launched Kwesé Play which is an IPTV box that gives them access to a three month free subscription to Netflix through a one of its kind partnership and 100 free streaming channels including TED Talks, Redbull TV, Youtube amongst others.

The Mediaproxy solution comprising of LogServer, TSAnalyzer, and Monwall has been deployed at Econet’s headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa along with a second system in Sardinia, Italy for providing high availability and full redundancy. Mediaproxy LogServer decodes and captures over 67 HEVC streams in HD and SD, which are then relayed to the Monwall client for real-time monitoring. TSAnalyzer is used to monitor and analyze Kwesé TV’s satellite downlinks.

“Assuring a quality service and viewing experience is a top priority for us,” said David Alpert, CTO at Econet Media. “For this reason we choose Mediaproxy to ensure the highest level of service quality while being able to scale up our service in line with the strong growth in demand for Kwesé TV.”

“We are very pleased to have been able to contribute to this innovative pay-TV service, the largest HEVC video service of its kind.” said Mark Horchler, SVP Marketing at Mediaproxy. “We look forward to continue working with Econet and Kwezé as they embark on their next phase of service expansion and market growth.”